Special Teams Hurts Vikings; Lose Shootout.

On Sunday when the Minnesota Vikings took to Soldier Field in Chicago,Illinois the mood was pretty upbeat and Vikings fans had reason to be. At (3-3) and narrowly sneaking out a victory*(and with help from officials) against the Detroit Lions and winning two straight in a row, the Vikings were looking for win number four to take a possible share of first place with the Green Bay Packers.

The Vikings started off well on their first series against a injury plagued defense who was with out star defensive players Nathan Vasher and Charles Tillman. Bernard Berrian and the WR company were feeling good about the advantage they now had or so thought. Of course ex-Bear Berrnard Berrian was excited to come back to Chicago and face his old team. The Chicago Bears let him go because of money constraints this last offseason. But even with Berrian on the Vikings offense they couldn't stop the accuracy of Kyle Orton, bt it didn't start ot all bad. On their first series the Vikings marched down the field in 5:42 to score on a one yard run up the middle by running-back Adrian Peterson.Then on the kickoff by Ryan Longwell, the Bears showed the special teams unit that you have got to tackle some one to stop them by returning it to their own 46 yard line.

Then Bears' quarterback Kyle Orton was pressure less to move about and find receivers when he hooked up with tight end Greg Olsen for a 18-yard touchdown pass to tie the game using only 2:35 of clock time.

Robbie Gould kicked the ball down the field and after three failed plays by Childress' crew the Vikings were set to punt. Chris Kluwe missed the catch and dropped the ball and tried to pick it up again only to be blocked and the ball smothered by a swarm of Bears players on Minnesota's 2 yard line. In result to a fumble recovery by the Bears' Gerret Wolfe for a 17-yard touchdown.

The next series the Gus Frerotte led Vikings marched down the field to score on a 24 yard touchdown pass to tight end Visanthe Shiancoe to tie it up 14-14.

But once again the special teams would make a costly mistake when punt return man Charles Gordon of the Vikings tried to block out Bears' Zach Bowman and his right arm swatted the ball in the process. Bowman picked it up and ran it in for a touchdown and the mood on the Vikings bench was sour and befuddled after two major special teams mistakes.

As the 2nd half approached the defense could not cover WR's or put any pressure on Kyle Orton except for two Jerred Allan sacks. The Chicago Bears quarterback threw the ball to the whole Bears WRs company including touchdown passes to Desmond Clark who fumbled in the end-zone only to be recovered by Recheid Davis, and a long 51 yard touchdown pass to Marty Booker.

Proving the defense could not keep up with the re-vamped Orton. The Defense gave up only 56 yards to rookie running-back Matt Forte but it was the pass that hurt them and often giving up 283 yards and two touchdowns.

The Vikings at (3-4) were looking to get a 4th win before their bye next week, and with 439 total offensive yards for any other team it may have been a victory but for the Vikings their special teams made one too many mistakes that hurt them constantly and the defense was not it's normal self. Applying no pressure to QB Kyle Orton and looking flat out horrible.

So the Vikings head into the bye week at (3-4) needing solutions before it's too late as they host the Houston Texans at home on November 2nd.